Tom Hardy as Charles Bronson, who changed his name from Michael Peterson in homage to the actor
From May 16, 2008. Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
Charles Bronson, reportedly Britain's most dangerous prisoner, is the subject of a new cinema film and has been advising the film-makers from his prison cell on how he should be characterised.
A feature drama about the 55-year-old armed robber, who has been in prison for 34 years — 30 of them in solitary confinement — is among several films about criminals that are being promoted at Cannes Film Festival.Bronson was jailed for armed robbery in 1975 but remains in prison because of his repeated violent attacks on inmates and prison staff. In 1999 he held a prison art teacher at knifepoint for 44 hours after he criticised his sketches.His visitors now include Tom Hardy, the British actor who appeared with Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's epic Band of Brothers and who has been cast to play him in Bronson, and Danny Hansford, one of the film's producers. He also speaks regularly on the telephone to Nicolas Winding Refn, its writer-director.Bronson accepts that the film will not portray him as Goldilocks, Hansford said. He describes the film as an honest portrait of a man called Mickey Peterson, who changed his name in tribute to the Hollywood star of Death Wish and who claims that violence is no longer part of his life. The two men began working on the film four years ago. Hansford said: “Everyone told me I was insane to get involved but he was very friendly from the beginning. We get across his humour, his warmth. He is one of the funniest people I've met. Being with him is like being with Billy Connolly for two hours. I wonder, 'How the hell can this guy still be in Wakefield prison?'. His violent days are over. I totally believe it, but they're making an example out of him, like the Krays, because he's so notorious... [article continues]
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